June 16, 2004
We don't have normal jobs. He's a deal-doer and I'm the lurking cynical
pragmatist, trying to figure out how we can get paid, producing
contracts and filing patents, not-so-secretly wishing he'd spent the
last 23 years working in a normal job. Right now, we're once again
trying to get paid, to make ends meet, broke, with deadlines looming
behind us and I'm paralyzed by the anxiety involved. It's taken me a
long time, but I think, if we can just make it through the next few
months, the royalties from the licensed patents will bring to us some
level of security (a/k/a regular income), for the first time in our time
together, but we aren't there yet. He's an expert in promotional
marketing and loyalty, including consumer gaming, multi-partner
promotion and multi-channel promotion. This recent project, which he's
worked on for the past three months and for which we've both spent the
last month trying to figure out a way to get paid, involves
entertainment properties (primarily music), a major retailer, and a new
innovative method of customer acquisition and direct customer
interaction (customer relationship management or "crm"), for the
artists, the labels and the retailer. He's been working with some
outside people but he is the conduit to the major retailer and we have
been stalled for a month while he's insisted on being paid for the work
done prior to the final sell-in, because our experience tells us that if
we deliver all the goods (take them all the way into the major
retailer), then they will find a way never to pay us. For once, we are
in agreement on this point. We were originally brought into this deal,
when it was just an idea, by an advertising executive who was in the
process of leaving one job and founding a new agency. We were told that
Husband should "keep track of his hours" and that he would be paid when
the executive (Killer Evil Vulturous Nut, "KEVN") as soon as funding for
his new venture was secured. Unfortunately, when KEVN found his
funding, and we presented him with a bill for services rendered
(including prototypes produced, etc.), his behavior became extreme and
bizarre. We don't know everything that's gone on behind the scenes but
we do know that KEVN isn't going to pay him and has bailed from the
project, leaving it to us. Of course, we're just trying to keep things
looking professional and seamless as far as the major retailer is
concerned, which (so far) we've done, and it's become obvious that this
is our deal (it also involves using our patented product), with or
without any outside partners. On the surface, that seems great, because
he could do the deal by himself and end up with all the money, but out
problem is that, when he started out on this project, we thought we'd be
getting paid faster, and we need money now, so, we're working with the
other partners on the original deal (all of whom have been, in some way,
screwed by KEVN), offering them positions in the deal in exchange for
some cash up front. They have said every day for the last week that they
want the deal and we'll have money today. I'm holding my breath and
praying.
I went downstairs for coffee and walked by his desk. He's on the phone
with our prospective partner and gave me a smile and a thumb's up, as I
pace and worry and wonder how I'm going to get Two to Orientation
(including how to finessese my not having his health forms done yet),
hoping (and praying) that my services are about to be needed to draw up
the paper-work for financing this deal, wondering how I could have let
Mama leave town without borrowing enough for food and gas through the
week. I'm waiting for him to finish his phone conversation and tell me
what's happening.
His call is over and I've learned that he's gotten no details of how
we're to be paid, just a quick, "We're going to do this, can you join
this new-biz conference call with Major National Sports Organization?" I
know that drill: promise the money to get the work done then be hard to
find. I wonder if all "consultants" have these problems or if it's just
us.
__________________________________________
It's been quite a ride since the first heady days of being engergized by
and in love with the invention. Looking back, I think we made a big
mistake when we didn't at least counter the first offer. A very
legitimate Japanese company offered us $2.5 million (US) to buy the
applications before the first patent issued, but we were mesmerized,
feeling "called" to the work and eager to live out the experience, and
said the property was not for sale. The problem was that a large
percentage of the folks who happened by and saw what we were doing got
what we came to call "The Fever" and too many of them quite literally
quit their jobs to join us or try to rip us off. Some met with success.
It always starts with their wanting to be partners (in the case of
larger companies) or investors (in the case of individuals or small
groups) and ends with them trying to find a way to make it all theirs,
delusional, certain that they *deserve* it. All of this made it very
difficult to focus on what we had been doing before the invention and
our core business shriveled and died, while most of the early profits
from the invention went to pirates and infringers, some of whom
ultimately achieved some legitimacy and are finally paying us royalties
(a moral victory although hard not to resent all the loss resulting from
the years of lost $$$$).
Stress management is over-rated. All it really does is enable one to
bear more stress.
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